Nuclear power

The major ethical issue facing engineers today in relation to nuclear power is regarding nuclear waste disposal and the environmental well being. When creating energy through nuclear reactions, there are high levels of very dangerous radioactive waste materials produced as byproducts. The byproducts tend to be entering the ecosystem of those locations within the surroundings of the nuclear power plants. The nuclear waste tends to be a serious problem in engineering because it is having a negative effect on the environment. There is a necessary need for concern regarding the environmental impact of nuclear power. Nuclear power tends to subject low income and minority groups to the disproportionate environmental and health risks during uranium mining, enrichment, and waste disposal. Research examining the public health indicates that residents and miners of the mining regions are largely Navajo in US and worldwide, they represent indigenous groups such as Australia, Africa, and Asia (Daley, 1997).

Most of the high-level radioactive waste is the fuel originating from the hot core of the commercial nuclear power plants. The irradiated fuel tends to be the most intensely radioactive material on earth, and any unshielded exposure usually result in lethal radiation doses. The waste accounts for about 95% of radioactivity generated in the past 50 years from all sources including the nuclear weapons production (Steen & Johansson 1981). The irradiated fuel usually makes about 1% of the total volume of all the radioactive waste generate in United States. However, it contains about 95 % of the radioactivity. The fuel contains about 25 billion curies of radioactivity. Some of these elements usually decay very quickly; however, even after 1000 years, there will be about 1752 curies in every ton of irradiated fuel (Dupea & Morley2009). Nuclear power is an ethical aspect because of the possibility of the nuclear accident. It is likely for a nuclear meltdown to occur when fission creates a lot of energy and overheats; thus, it will cause damage to surrounding areas and release ratio in the environment. It is possible for accidents to occur when structures that surround the nuclear reactor suffer a malfunction; thus, allowing radiation leaks.

Nuclear fuel tends to be a key threat to the environment through threatening drinking water. Research indicates that the nuclear fuel is a hazardous substance and the reactor fuel rods usually contain uranium and other radioactive isotopes produced during atomic fission. Most of the radioisotopes are available in large quantities, and they tend to move through the environment in ways that make it likely for people to get exposed to them through drinking water and food. Radiation normally occurs in different ways, and it damages cells and DNA (Daley, 1997). The electromagnetic radiation may travel through the air and harm those people around the radiation source. The alpha and beta radiation cannot travel far, but they do cause severe damage to the cells when released from within the body. It can happen after a person drinks contaminated water or even inhales contaminated dust.

According to the opponents of nuclear power, the major environmental impact comes from uranium mining, waste heat, and radioactive effluent emissions. The generation of nuclear does not directly produce mercury, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, or other pollutants associated with fossil fuel combustion. The nuclear plants normally require more cooling water than the fossil-fuel plants because of their slightly lower generation efficiencies. When considering mining of uranium, it tends to use large amounts of water. For instance, the Roxby Down mine in Southern Australia usually uses 35 million liters of water every day and is planning to increase the amount to approximately 150 million liters in a day (Dupea & Morley2009).

According to the proponents of nuclear power, they argue that nuclear power do not usually emit greenhouse gas. Despite the fact that this statement is true, emission normally occurs just like with every other source of energy. Emission in nuclear power normally happen in the life cycle of the facility through mining, fabrication, of materials, operation, plant construction, uranium mining, and also plant decommissioning. The gas emission from the nuclear power may be in different forms. The nuclear plants usually use diesel generators for backup electricity power during emergencies. The plants should test and run the systems once a month so that to make sure they are working.

During the process, they normally release greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, and the gas primarily consist of nitrous oxides, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxides. With the exception of the greenhouse gasses, the exhaust gasses from those buildings that contain radioactive processes are also radioactive in nature. Additionally, those plants that have boiling water reactors and the air ejector exhaust are also radioactive. The exhaust normally passes through delay pipes; hydrogen recombines, and storage tanks before releasing to the environment (Dupea & Morley2009). The radioactive exhaust from the power plants tends to cause skin problems of different kinds. The commercial nuclear reactors normally use uranium as fuel and before it is ready for use as fuel, there is a series of processing steps that cause serious environmental contamination. When splitting the uranium atom, it does not only produce energy, but also produce highly dangerous radioactive waste.

Nuclear power is a threat to the environment because the waste materials produced during nuclear reaction tend to generate nuclear energy that is radioactive and a potential hazard to the environmental health. The normal reactor operation tends to involve waterborne, and airborne released of many radioactive isotopes that include carbon-14, plutonium-239, and tritium (Dupea & Morley2009). The by-products of the nuclear energy production process tend to be extremely dangerous, and the materials are contaminating the environment. The nuclear waste is deadly, and the toxic radioactive properties remain for over tens of thousands of years. The fact that the dangerous levels of radioactive properties from nuclear power remain in the environment is an example of the poor ethical situation where we do not put the safety and health of the public at the forefront.

Objection

According to the proponents of nuclear power, they argue that nuclear power is the safest energy considering all the risks in mining, production, and storage. Proponents claim that nuclear power is the necessary alternatives in our current energy-constrained world. However, opponents argue that the cost of nuclear power is very high to justify the safety hazards and the increased risk of proliferation. Proponents support nuclear power arguing it is no threat to the environment as it is the least damaging energy source for the environment. According to Totty, (2008), the rising demand for energy is likely to place a greater burden on the natural world; thus, threatening the rich biodiversity. Thus, it is necessary for societies to start accepting nuclear power as a part of the energy mix. Because the nuclear power does not emit greenhouse gasses, it is important that even environmentalist to start supporting nuclear power as a replacement to burning of fossil fuels. Proponents claim that the expansion of nuclear gas will result in an increase in land for supporting biodiversity and curb the extinction of species.

According to Totty, (2008), nuclear power does not emit any greenhouse gasses. Electricity generation emits about 9500 million tons of CO2 annually and as a result of the nuclear plants in the world providing 13% of electricity, the carbon emission reduced to about 2 billion tons in a year. With this statistics, proponents claim that nuclear power is a better solution to reducing the carbon dioxide emission across the world.

Response

All engineers must abide by a particular code of ethics in their profession. The code requires that engineers must highly consider the environmental impact of the proposed engineering solution before they can make any choices for implementing certain processes (Kurokawa 1986). According to proponents of nuclear power, they state that nuclear power does not have any negative effect on the environment. However, that area that have radioactive waste dump sites tend to suffer ecological changes that end up affecting populations. Those resources like rainwater percolate quickly through the ground and water used by the nuclear waste sites. It risks the fast corrosion of waste burial containers and releases a catastrophic amount of radioactivity in the drinking and agricultural irrigation water supply. It is evident that storage of the radioactive waste in certain locations can seriously harm the public and the environment. The storage of the waste tends to put people at a greater risk of exposure to radioactive materials and pollution of air and water supplies which are necessary to the environment.

The proponents of nuclear power claim that nuclear power does not produce greenhouse gas emissions than coal burning, gas, and oil. However, nuclear power normally emits gas just like with every other source of energy. The emission normally occurs in the lifecycle through mining, fabrication, of materials, operation, plant construction, uranium mining, and also plant decommissioning. Most of the commercial nuclear power plants tend to release liquid and gaseous radiological effluents in the environment as a byproduct for the Chemical Volume Control System. Those civilians living in the surrounding area within 80 kilometers of the power plant tend to receive approximately 0.1sv (Dupea & Morley2009).

At the moment, nuclear energy is not a good option to use mostly because of the effect on the environment. Proponents of nuclear power claim that nuclear is GHG free. Although the statement is true, it is not accurate to claim that nuclear fuel cycle is GHG-free. The nuclear power normally operates in tandem with other power sources that usually produce GHGs. While the net greenhouse gas output from nuclear power is lower than the fossil fuel power, it is misleading to claim that the nuclear option is entirely GHGs free. The sheer size of nuclear operations means that there is the use of a lot of fossil fuel energy.

While considering the environmental aspect, nuclear fuel cycle tends to replace one emission problem of GHG will another of nuclear waste. If people want to have a sustainable environment, we cannot subject nature to a systematically increasing concentration of the substances extracted from the Earth’s crust. Uranium is normally diffuse in the earth’s crust; however, when we concentrate it on making nuclear fuel, it tends to become very dangerous. In case there are no precautions taken, it can cause harmful impact to the environment and also the people. With the products and waste of the uranium mining, processing, and nuclear power production, it remains dangerous for years.

Despite the fact that the proponents of nuclear power claiming that it is a safe and best alternative in saving the environment, the history of nuclear power shows a number of disasters. For instance, the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine is one of the frightening examples if the potential impact of nuclear accidents. The radioactive fallout from the accident did make 4400 square kilometers of the agricultural land, displacement of 220,000 people from their homes, and 6820 square kilometers of forest in Ukraine unusable (Steen & Johansson 1981). The dangers from an accident of nuclear power plant tend to be severe, and the climate change tends to increase the risk of nuclear accidents. Thus, it is evident that nuclear power is not a safe and good alternative to power because its effect on the environment and the public is intense.

Conclusion

The nuclear power is not a solution to our problem, but rather causing more problems. Nuclear power tends to be exploiting the climate crisis through aggressively promoting the nuclear energy as the low-carbon means for generating electricity. Nuclear power tends to be a dangerous source of electricity those create serious risks mostly when deployed on a large scale. Supporters of nuclear power claim that nuclear power does not produce greenhouse gas emissions than coal burning, gas, and oil. However, nuclear power normally emits gas just like with every other source of energy. The emission normally occurs in the lifecycle through mining, fabrication, of materials, operation, plant construction, uranium mining, and also plant decommissioning. In engineering, engineers must highly consider the environmental impact of the proposed engineering solution before they can make any choices for implementing certain processes.

Thus, it is important to consider the appropriate way to use nuclear power without having a negative impact on the environment. Something that people should understand is that nuclear wastes are usually in rural areas far from densely populated areas. However, it is no justification to expose someone to risk because they are living in a densely populated area. The nuclear waste tends to be a serious problem in engineering because it is having a negative effect on the environment. There is a need for great attention regarding the environmental impact of nuclear power. When creating energy through nuclear reactions, there are high levels of very dangerous radioactive waste materials produced as byproducts. The byproducts tend to be entering the ecosystem of those locations within the surroundings of the nuclear power plants.

Reference

Daley, M (1997). Nuclear power: promise or peril Twenty-first-century books

Dupea, R & Morley. D (2009). Counterpoint: Nuclear Power is Not Worth the Risk. Points of View Reference Center

Kurokawa G (1986). Ethics and nuclear energy technology

Parkins, J & Haluza-Delay (2011). Social and ethical considerations of the nuclear power development

Royakkers, L & Poel, I (2011). Ethics, technology, and engineering John Wiley & Sons

Steen, P & Johansson, T (1981). Radioactive waste from nuclear power plants University of California Press

Totty, M (2008). The case for and against nuclear power Wall Street Journal

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